


Delicate Matters

by rosefox



Category: Sorcerer to the Crown - Zen Cho
Genre: Advice, Chromatic Yuletide, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Motherhood, Pregnancy, Yuletide, mother figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-18 09:41:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13097424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosefox/pseuds/rosefox
Summary: Most ladies, upon finding themselves in a delicate condition, would turn to their mothers for advice. Prunella Wythe's mother being unavailable, she turns to the nearest available substitute: Mak Genggang.





	Delicate Matters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deliarium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliarium/gifts).



> Thanks to Muccamukk for the research assistance!

"I hardly think this was worth asking me to travel all the way here," said Mak Genggang, sipping at a steaming cup of Chinese tea. "Babies are born all the time with no interference from the likes of me, and they do perfectly well, most of them." But the gleam in her eye gave the lie to her casual words.

"You are surely welcome to depart if you think it no great matter," replied the Sorceress Royal airily. Her right hand rested on her abdomen in a pose that would have struck an immediate chord of recognition with any mother, though as yet there were no other visible clues to her delicate condition. "After all, we are many months away from the actual event."

Mak Genggang made an elaborate show of shrugging. "As it happens, I was in the neighborhood," she said, which Prunella knew was a flat lie. Intelligence had reached her of the lamiae of Janda Baik making trouble in Australia, where the Aboriginal tribes had banded together and were threatening to evict the colonial government, and if the lamiae were making trouble then Mak Genggang was assuredly to be found in the middle of it.

"Well then, if it is not too great an inconvenience," Prunella said, leaving the end of the sentence hovering delicately in the air.

The elderly witch sat her teacup down with a clack. "Of course it is not, you silly girl," she said tartly. "What would you like to know? I assume Lady Wythe or some other friend has already told you how the birth will generally proceed."

"I did not ask Lady Wythe," Prunella said, "for fear of opening old wounds. But my friend Elizabeth Darcy has been most forthcoming." Lizzie had, in point of fact, been so thorough in her recounting that Prunella had nearly been ill, not that she was ever too far from it. The servants had learned to keep her well supplied with bicarbonate of soda and clean chamber pots.

"Well and good," said Mak Genggang. "Then we may proceed to the important parts. You are having a girl, yes?"

"I presume that I am," Prunella said, startled, "but I did not think to check! How foolish of me. I confess that my attention to detail has been somewhat diminished in recent weeks."

"Children become smarter by consuming the brains of their parents," Mak Genggang said dryly.

"What, do they really!" Prunella said. "Then it is fortunate Zacharias and I have so much to spare."

Mak Genggang laughed. "Well, let us begin at the very beginning," she said. "Would you like to say hello to her?"

"Oh, I would!" Prunella said. "I don't feel as though we are properly acquainted just yet. It is early days." She considered. "I suppose we shall have to make do without a formal introduction."

"You made this child from your own body," Mak Genggang said, "so you no more need an introduction to her than you do to your left elbow. Here is how you do it—it's a modified sort of mind-speech." She recited a small explosion of syllables in her native language. "I expect English witches would have their own spells for these things," she added, "except that your useless men have spent so long suppressing such knowledge, so you will have to learn mine."

"It is no trouble," Prunella said. She closed her eyes, sent her awareness inward, and spoke the words of the spell.

After a moment, she became aware of another presence. _Hello_ , she said tentatively.

 _...?_ came the response.

_You are able to reply! I was not certain you would be old enough yet. Hello, little one. I am your mother._

_... ...? ..._

_I am sorry, that is too many words for you just yet. Here—_ Strong emotions did not come naturally to Prunella, but she mustered up a small quantity of pure love and wafted it gently toward the child.

After a moment, she received a very tiny response in kind.

She burst into tears.

Distantly, she felt a handkerchief being pressed into her hand. Prunella pulled herself together and wiped at her eyes. "I must apologize," she managed. "This has been happening nearly as often as being sick, and is frankly the worse of the two!"

"So nothing is wrong?" said Mak Genggang, who had been watching her closely.

"No, no, nothing at all. That I could tell—I am hardly experienced in such things. We did not have a conversation, as such, but there was... an exchange. It was very nice."

"Good," Mak Genggang said. "And is it a girl?"

"I did not inquire," Prunella said, a little stiffly. "I believe the concept is a bit advanced for the child at this stage."

Mak Genggang rolled her eyes. "I don't mean whether the child _thinks_ she's a girl," she snapped. "She won't know that for years yet."

"What?" said Prunella, startled.

"You English know nothing," Mak Genggang said, which was not enlightening in the least, but Prunella was distracted from further questions by Mak Genggang leaning forward and touching two fingertips to her navel while speaking another spell. The witch listened intently for a moment, nodded, and sat back. "Well, that's all—" she began, and then she saw that Prunella's staff was in her hand and her familiars had come swiftly and silently to her side.

"How _dare_ you," said Prunella, aflame with rage.

"You asked me to—"

"I asked for your _advice_ , not for you to place your hands upon my person and work magic upon my child without my say," Prunella snarled. "Be glad you withdrew that withered claw before I took it off at the wrist. As I may yet do."

Mak Genggang drew herself up haughtily, her instinct to answer the challenge, but then she thought better of it. Her centuries of experience might be a match for Prunella's raw power, but not for the potent mixture of power and maternal wrath. "I apologize," she said.

Prunella slowly relaxed, though she remained wary. "I accept your apology," she said, "upon the condition that you explain exactly and completely what you were doing."

"It was a simple working to see which traits a child has inherited from her parents," Mak Genggang said. "It is no more intrusive than glancing at someone as she passes you on the street. Try it yourself."

"I think I will not," said Prunella, thinking of many times that gentlemen had stared at her in ways that felt quite intrusive indeed. "If there is information she wishes me to have, she will tell me."

"Hah!" Mak Genggang said. "You will feel differently in a few years when you have a small sticky child who refuses to explain how she became so sticky. At any rate, yes, it is a girl, and healthy."

"I was not worried," said Prunella, who had, just the prior night, thrashed through a nightmare about bearing a fish-child who swam off on a torrent of birthing fluids.

Mak Genggang snorted. "Of course not," she said.

"A girl," Prunella said softly. "It is different, to know it rather than merely believing it." She sighed. "I wish my mother were here. There's so much I want to know about how to teach my daughter."

"Your mother didn't teach you much," Mak Genggang pointed out. "Why would she be able to tell you how to do what she failed at?"

Prunella's nostalgic longing was brought up short. "I suppose you're right," she said thoughtfully. "Well, at least I can hardly be a worse mother, so long as I remain in my child's life at all. And if—if I am prevented from that, she will be brought up by Zacharias and Lady Wythe, whose guardianship will assuredly be superior to my father's."

"Also, you have me," Mak Genggang said. "And I know a thing or two about raising witches."

Tears sprang to Prunella's eyes again. She dashed them away impatiently. Had not she just been furious with Mak Genggang? And now she was weeping over this little show of kindness.

Well, no, she admitted to herself, it was no small thing for Mak Genggang to offer herself as godmother to the next Grand Sorceress of Seringapatam. It was, in fact, quite an honor, and she said as much.

"It certainly is!" Mak Genggang said. "But I find I like you, and I am curious about how you and your family will get on. You have already shaken up England quite a bit, and much for the better."

"One does one's best," Prunella said modestly. "I do hope motherhood will not be too much of an impediment to my plans. The Society are quite beside themselves about it—asking how I will maintain my position as Sorceress Royal while confined, as though I would permit anyone to confine me!"

"Have you brought in another witch to be your wet nurse?" Mak Genggang asked. "It's not essential, but I recommend it."

"Oh, I had not," Prunella said. "Goodness, so many arrangements to make."

Mak Genggang sipped her tea and grimaced. "This has gone cold," she said. "Ring for pen and paper and a fresh pot, and I will tell you everything you need to know."


End file.
